Well built, quiet to operate, excellent design, user friendly, good suction, long warranty
Written: Mar 04 '05
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Ease of Cleaning:
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Pros: Well built, operation ease, well engineered, easy to assemble, user friendly, good suction, long warranty
Cons: Nothing negative, but owners manual should be read to fully understand features usage.
The Bottom Line: Though a little pricey, the Sebo X4 is a highly quality vacuum, with onboard tools, great suction, very quiet operation, and not overly heavy.
savvyconsumer1's Full Review: Sebo X4 Bagged Upright Vacuum
It has been awhile since I wrote a product review, but wanted to pass on my thoughts about the Sebo X4 upright vacuum cleaner. Before outlining my good review of this cleaner, allow me to explain my circumstances. My wife, who is the primary vacuum user in our household, seems to frequently have problems with cords that crack, and with on/off switches that break. We have been in our house since 1993, and in that time, we have easily gone through two vacuums – a Hoover Wind Tunnel and a Eureka, and several repairs of each. My wife has always had a few requirements that vacuum cleaners must satisfy to be considered:
* Not too heavy to pick up and carry up and down stairs (we live in a Colonial with wall-to-wall carpeting, even on stairs and with a carpeted basement and on stairs to basement).
* Must maintain good suction, even as bag fills
* Must provide Hepa filtration, since my sons suffer from allergies
* Cannot be bagless, since emptying the container could be a problem
* Must have on-board tools and hose
* Preferably should have a long cord to allow for vacuuming of multiple rooms without the need to keep unplugging the cord.
I personally, as the maintainer of the vacuum cleaner, also have some requirements, based upon past experiences with other vacuums:
* If possible, get cleaner with self-winding long cord
* Cleaner needs to be easy to change belts, since they stretch and break
* Beater brush needs to be easy to remove and clean.
* Since my wife sometimes does not wind the cord on the cleaner, but instead creates tight cord loops, which she hangs on the cleaner, ensure that the cord is heavy duty. This is one of the reasons for cracked cords, in addition to driving over them
* Ensure that it is not difficult for a novice repairperson (i.e. ME) to replace the cord. I have found that with many cleaners, Hoovers included that to replace the cord you need to take much of the cleaner apart.
* Ensure that it is not difficult to find and correct clogged hoses. My research has shown that some of the Dyson machines have narrow hoses inside the cleaner handle, making it almost impossible to get access to them.
* Find a cleaner where the cord connection to the cleaner is not near the bottom of the unit. My wife sometimes steps on the cord, and then starts vacuuming, and the distance is so short between her foot and where it is connected, that she breaks the cord or pulls it out of the machine.
As my wife will tell you, I usually over-research any major purchase. She will tell you that I have been looking to buy a PDA for the past 3 years, but hadn’t because for a while, I could not find one with a user-replaceable battery. I also wanted one with wireless capability. Now that I have found a couple, I don’t like the price. She will tell you that I have looking to buy a surround-sound receiver, and over-researched that as well. So, when she told me that she needed ANOTHER vacuum cleaner, in adherence with her requirements, we looked at ePinions, Consumer Reports, and other Internet-based review sites. We then visited the Targets and Walmarts of the world, looking at this one and that one. We looked at Sharps with some good reviews, Hoovers, Eurekas, Sanitaires, Kenmore, Dysons and many others. I wanted to get one with a bag, because with discussions with vacuum dealers, colleagues, etc… I think bagless is a pain and a little dirty to empty. I am sure many of you will tell me that I do not know what I am talking about, and so be it.
I spoke with my wife about buying a canister type, but because we go up and down stairs, she did not want to have to carry the canister and the beater brush device. A colleague suggested that I consider a central vacuum, but I determined that to retrofit an existing house could be costly to say the least. So we decided upon an upright. I started reading about the Sebo, and its rave reviews. I checked and found two stores in CT (where I live) that sold Sebos. One store, the Vacuum Village is in Berlin, CT. I spoke with the owner several times, and he consistently treated me well, and he showed me all that he sold, and offered his opinions about the others. He showed me the Sebo, and I personally liked it a lot, but since I am not the primary user, I wanted my wife’s opinion. In our house, we discuss all purchases of this size. I will tell you right now, that the X4 did cost me $600, but with it, the owner through in a free set of 10-Sebo bags (a $17 value), a 13-foot Sebo extension hose ($20 value) and a Sebo beater brush for stairs ($39 value). In comparison to the other store that sells Sebos, in Norwich, CT, the owner there wanted to charge me $649, with no extras included. So my decision was obvious, once my wife and I made THAT decision, which took several weeks. Remember, I research everything to the nth degree.
Let me tell you the features, which I like about this cleaner:
! The vacuum motor is very quiet.
! The vacuum has excellent suction, and is consistent even when the bag fills.
! The vacuum has a large bag. One vacuum I looked at (I do not remember which) had a 5-quart bag. That sounded big, until I checked the Sebo, which has a 2.7-gallon bag, which equates to 11 quarts.
! The height of the vacuum is I believe 5.6 inches when laid down flat. This is ideal when going under beds, etc… Something else that is pretty cool is that each bag comes with a cap. So when you change the bag, you can just put the cap on, and TOSS it in a trashcan. The three-ply bag will not rip and the contents won’t come spewing out the hole.
! Changing the bag is simple and a snap.
! The cleaner has a Hepa filter – one that looks quite large to me in comparison to cheap ones on Hoovers, etc… The shop owner tells me to replace it when after each 20 bags that I change. This seems too infrequent, so I will change it more often, and it is easy to change. There is an additional filter above the motor, which reduces any dust that may come from the bottom of the cleaner.
! The hoses are easy to access on the top of the cleaner, and can be easily removed to unclog if necessary.
! The cleaner will shut off automatically if a clog occurs, so the motor does not burn out.
! There is an orange access port at the bottom of the cleaner, to aid in cleaning items that may clog the machine. I have not yet had the opportunity to unclog the machine.
! There is a lifetime warranty on the belt.
! There is a 5-year warranty on the machine, excluding bags. I would recommend you verify the warranty since I am not absolutely sure of its length.
! It is very easy to remove / clean the brush, without having to take the bottom of the cleaner off. No screws to take off.
! The cord, though not self-winding is 37 feet long. The cord connects to the handle at the top of the cleaner. The handle is very simple to insert and remove to work on, without having to take the whole machine apart to reach. The on / off switch is located here as well. In fact, if you (or I) do not feel competent enough to make these repairs, it is simple to take the handle off (it slides out), to be brought to a repair shop, without having to bring the whole cleaner.
! The vacuum has an automatic floor height adjustment that works very well, since we have berber carpet in one area, a thick carpet throughout most of the house, ceramic tile in our foyer, hard wood in our dining room, and vinyl in our kitchen. It easily adjusts to each.
! When used in the upright mode, like when using the tools, the beater brush raises automatically to its highest point, to reduce wear and tear beating the carpet or floor where it is standing.
Of the various vacuum cleaner colors offered, I personally liked the lime-green color, though my wife did not, so we bought the white instead, and as she is frequently right, this looks better in our home. I believe they also offer this in Red and Dark Blue.
In all fairness, let me now tell you the features I do not like about this cleaner. Well, it would be nice if the cleaner had stabilizer bars like a motor home, so that I could put the cleaner at the top of the stairs, and then pull the extension hose as hard as I could, to get it to extend beyond it normal capacity, without pulling the cleaner down the stairs. That was a just a little humor; please do not take that comment seriously. I HAVE NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS AS OF YET.
Though we have had the cleaner only for about 2 months, we are extremely happy about how it cleans. I did find that until I read the owner’s manual (typical male – I tried using the cleaner without reading the manual), that when using the hose and the automatic tool wand, the hose needs to lock in to the end of the wand. There is a trick that is described in the owner’s manual. If you do not do this, the vacuum suction, sucks the hose back into the wand, defeating the idea of extending the wand the available distance of the hose. This may sound confusing, but try out the vacuum at the shop without the shop owner pulling out the wand for you, and you may understand. There is nothing wrong with the cleaner, but you do need to know how to use it. I found that using 13-foot hose extension to be very easy as did my wife, once we read the owners manual.
So needless to say, we are quite pleased, and I am expecting to update this as we gain more experience. Please feel free to send me comments.
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